Please Sir, may I have those two hours of my life back...

Night all. Very unsatisfactory ending to the quest for first place. Constant stoppages, ridiculous time reviewing, they played 'smarter' than us and punished us when we stuffed up.

VAR weren't watching for that. An insightful day. This Saudi team have played an Arab cup together against fully grown teams. They play a lot at clubs as well and probably have a lot of camps in the country.

There was no doubt in my mind this Olyroos team would make the semi finals at least and there's a lot to work on from this so it's been a very useful tournament compared to the previous crash outs. 

Saudi were able to keep the ball better and string passes

Not a good game, the red card killed our chances but it was bad defending for both goals.

It is a pity we could not bring a full strength side to the tournament because of players with the Socceroos. Genreau, Atkinson, King, Metcalfe and Tilio were all missing. \

14 players from the 23 man squad will be available for the next tournament.

Uzbekistan lead Japan 1:0 with 5 left.

2:0 Uzbekistan. We'll play Japan. Great test.

What a shame now. How great would it have been to be in the final against the host with that atmosphere.

Highlights

https://youtu.be/sYLluA6W2zc

So in the tournament you have to go back to the first round to find a game where Saudi Arabia's opponents haven't been awarded a red card.

Australia 
Viet-nam
Japan
UAE

All coped one.

So are they experts in niggle and drop or are they dodgy calls?

Seems very unusual for everyone else to get a red - but I have no idea if it is actually 'normal' at the U23 level.

Not really too fazed. Wasn’t our best squad and dominated when we had 11 showing that this age group has a lot of Socceroos potential. Hopefully by next tournament Circati and Volpato have come around as this olympics team could be really dangerous especially with Tilio as well

3rd red card was the most understandable of the three

2nd one was just crazy to me

anyway, I really wish our refs in Australia would become slightly harsher so that it wasn't such a shock to play in asia

If anything Asian referees need to be retrained to suit world football. Look at the european referee we had for the Socceroos the other day. He was really good and can’t really recall any mistakes he made. 

The Slovenian seemed to Ur away for the foul, which although I feel assisted us, it basically meant simulation evaporated, it was good no nonsense reffing

My god that was a dodgy red call against Rich.

If anything it should have been a yellow for the Saudi.

Oh mate....

The red card call was tough but in slow motion he did give a little kick into the Saudi's abdomen-a really athletic move I must say.The Saudi player went down like a hooker in a brothel  so made it look bad.Unfortunately the Saudi players were experts at falling at the slightest touch ,invariably causing stoppages and making it a tedious match to watch..

I'm convinced Tyrese Francois is a fraud, not sure what Fulham saw in him, was basically useless last night. Should of given Teague a chance in this squad.

this 100% so many times last night he passed out and literally caused a bad situation instead of using his eyes and going out wider to the RB more often.

There's no point playing a keeper who cant pass if your going to play out from the back. 

So who are the players that impressed this tournament? 

I've no idea how anyone could be certain that teensy little mid-air kick was deliberate and/or caused any damage.

Seemed like refs were on a mission to remove our players this tournament. 

They had their moments and flaws. JRB generally tidy. Miller in the European leagues now. Yengi wasted. Trewin above Bility. 

What makes you say Francois impressed?

Personally I thought he was quite average. 

Kuol plays like school player, lots of aimless energy. The few times Wood was used he was able to make runs that drew defenders out of position. JRB, Miller, D’Arrigo, Courtney-Perkins, Farrell all good.
Bility ordinary. Peupion has ability.

Miller was fairly good
Courtney-Perkins okay but I think JRB was clearly the best CB
Bos was good
Francois was reasonable.
Kuol did one good thing, that amazing goal, but apart from that he was pretty mediocre

Wood looked a lot better than Kuol when he came on but he was isolated up front most of the time when we had 10 men.
Farrel was quite good as well as Bos at LB

I think D'arrigo, JRB, Francois and miller were the standouts. 

For me kuol was the biggest disappointment. Apart from that one goal he didn't do anything. Constantly offside, doesn't provide an option, doesn't get into threatening positions etc. I can kinda see now why he never ended up getting a game whilst on loan. He's got a long way to go 

Oh and Bos

Sure. And the kick to the head with the other foot?

Do you blokes have your eyes painted on?

There is absolutely no way the boot to the head was anything other than a total accident. There was no force behind the cantact.

The boot to the stomach looks like it could be deliberate in slow motion, but I don't think it was deliberate. 

Outside of the game's outcome and the tactical issues with this team, overall I thought they did quite well to make it to the semi's as we know alot of these display there abilities with good technical quality and creativity and good athleticism which has been an issue with our junior national teams till this point.

However I wish there was more scope for the likes of Najjarine, Brook, Bernardo, Peupion and especially Hammond whom are technical creative attackers to do there thing in the final third but Morgan's rigid structure made it difficult to do so because I didnt feel they have great games in this tournament even Kuol wasn't involved enough from this.

It also it doesnt help that the midfield couldn't function properly to propel those front line more in the game at times the likes of D'Arrigo, Nisbet and especially Francios whom was a victim in hiding away from the ball and Australia's build was too rigid and too deep to get the attackers in the game in more advanced areas, it also didnt help us that we were too narrow at times and didnt take advantage of the space especially in the transition.

So room to improve on but overall there is some talent on display and should be a great platform to build on going to the Paris 2024 campaign.

My best were:

Bos

D'Arrigo

Courtney-Perkins

Gauci

I would also said Jay-Rich but that was a clumsy red card you should never concede at this level and show naivety against AFC refs.